Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list.

IRAQ

Army platoon enters uncharted territory -- [MNF-I]
SHARQOT — In a moment reminiscent of the first triumphant days of the Iraq war, American Soldiers walked through a crowd of cheering Iraqi children. On a dirt road in the village of Sharqot, the children whistled loudly for the Soldiers, then, remarkably, broke into applause.

Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbs killings of US soldiers -- (KUNA)
BAGHDAD, March 14 -- The rate of killings of US troops in Iraq has been on the decline, down by 60 percent, since the launch of the new security measures in Baghdad, according to statistics revealed by the Multi-National Force -Iraq Combined Press Information Centre.

Action follows calm... -- [Iraq the Model - Iraqis in Iraq]
The front in Baghdad has been remarkably quiet in the last 48 hours, until about an hour ago when we started to hear many explosions in the distance.
From the increased activity of jetfighters and the way the explosions sound it looks like a wave of aerial bombing is underway somewhere on the peripheries of the city…not sure yet what's going on but we'll provide an update if we find more info.

Martius iam? -- [The Desert Excursion - in Iraq]
...Life in the ER is quiet here for the most part. Most of the time we see the common ailments, sprains, kidney stones, infections, cuts and so forth. Occasionally, such as the other day, we had a patient with a gunshot wound to the neck which would be the most excitement I have seen in a few months.

Insurgency in the Shadows -- [Captain's Journal]
Published March 14th, 2007 by Herschel Smith in Iraq, Islamic Facism, Jihadists, al Qaeda, Ansar al Sunna |
There are shadowy operations going on in the Anbar Province conducted by AQI and other militant groups, these operations being directed against each other and spilling over into the broader population in an attempt to gain support. As we have pointed out in Hope and Brutality in Anbar (and prior), although AQI has used persuasion in the form of money for some support (such as paying children to spy on U.S. snipers), their primary tactic has been intimidation, torment, torture and houses of horror to keep the population in submission and thus ensure safe haven for their terrorist activities. However, the intimidation has taken a turn for the secretive, as we saw in Samarra

More Photos of the Surge -- [BlackFive]
Stryker Soldiers with Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, roll through a village heading towards Baqubah, March 13. The 5-20 Inf. Reg. of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, arrived in the Diyala province to help maintain the momentum against insurgents that was gained in recent large-scale operations by the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.

Tow missile launch from hummer Marked as: Featured
A tow missile launch takes out a oldsmobile with deadly accuracy,nice bit of training

Iraqi Police, Army protect pilgrims -- [MNF-I]
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Army and police forces worked together to provide security for more than six million pilgrims traveling to Karbala to observe the Shiite ritual of Arbaeen, officials in Baghdad said Monday.

What's it's Like to be a Cop in Fallujah, UPDATE -- [INDC Journal - in Iraq]
Last Tuesday, I published an e-mail from Fallujah Police Transition Team officer Captain Tad Scott regarding an Iraqi Police officer who suffered a horrific insurgent attack on his family. To recap:

T-Minus and Counting -- [Outside the Wire]
Two years this week, I was in a mad dash.
I didn't know what to expect, what I would really need and even how to pack it. Thus, I did not have time to worry.
Two tours in Iraq later, things are much smoother.
The first time, I was too busy getting everything together to think about the risks and just how bizarre it is for a person as a one-man-TV-band to head to Iraq.
But this time I know what to expect, what I need and how to pack it--so I have time for the occasional thought to slip into my head.
The thought that bugs me the most is why I have no fear.

Iraq's Accomplishments in Perspective -- [Austin Bay - Strategy Page]
The chattering class nostrum that Free Iraq and its coalition allies have "lost the Iraq war" is so blatantly wrong it would be a source of laughter were human life and hope-inspiring liberty not at such terrible risk.

Australians in Iraq - 4 RAR Commandos (Night Operations) Marked as: Mature

Australian Special Forces - 4 RAR Commandos on Night Operations.

Why We Fight -- [Weekly Standard - Blog]

This clip is a bit long, but very powerful, and it may offer the most persuasive, liberal argument for keeping American troops in Iraq--"this isn't about national security, this is about saving humans." Really excellent stuff, at least watch the second half if you're pressed for time.

AFGHANISTAN

Are We Losing in Afghanistan? -- [Michael Fumento]
Afghanistan may be called "The Forgotten War" but we'd better hurry up and remember it, for time is short. That's increasingly the word from experts both military and non-military, including an exhaustive survey based on 1,000 interviews with Afghans released by the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Taliban Forcing Musharraf's Hand -- [Captain's Quarters]
The agreement reached between Pervez Musharraf and the tribal leaders of Waziristan appeared to allow the Pakistani leader to back away from the war on terror. Unfortunately, Islamist terrorists don't have the habit of respecting boundaries, and now they have begun to use their new autonomy for attacks in Pakistan rather than Afghanistan...

ANA Firing Range -- [Afghanistan JAG - in Afghanistan]
Yesterday we went to the ANA (Afghan National Army) pistol range.
On the way back from the range, we pass by several villages. Here you can see the kids again. They line the side of the road to wave and smile.

My unit in afghanistan - [cdutchess78]

A year worth of pics and footage of my time in afghanistan in 2006-07

Afghanistan First’ Program Shifts Focus to Training -- [Defense Link]
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 14, 2007 – Give an Afghan a job hauling bags of cement, he works for a day. Give an Afghan a job that offers on-the-job-training, and he works for the rest of his life.
That is the general idea behind a shift in focus in the Afghanistan First program, a policy that gives incentives to Afghan companies and contractors in Afghanistan that use local Afghan labor to fulfill work contracts. More than $1 billion in contracts went to Afghan companies in 2006.

RC-East, USAID Leaders Plan Future Afghanistan Development -- [DVIDS]
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - The leaders of Regional Command-East and United States Agency International Development met, March 6, in order to bridge the information gap between the two groups.

Cleanliness and Godliness -- [Afghanistan Without a Clue - in Afghanistan]
...“Yes, people really do read this stuff. They love to see what your lives are like, and our interactions with Afghans is interesting, even if we are trying to figure out what kind of candy bar you like. Most blogs are about combat or at least being in a combat unit. But many of us don’t see any combat. Some people enjoy reading about our lives too.”
... “Why would you do this to a woman?”
“If I see a woman, I might have thoughts about her, or she about me,” he replied.
“It sounds to me like you don’t trust women.”
“Oh, we trust them. But they might have thoughts to have sex with others.”
“Hamid, I understand why you have these rules and what you hope to achieve, but basically you put women in a prison. They can’t work and they have to cover most of their body up, just to prevent bad thoughts. Why not make the men stay home and cover up, and let the women go out and run things.”
Hamid really seemed to be thinking this over.

Governor Henry Visit -- [Task Force Phoenix 5 - in Afghanistan]
...School will be starting within the next week so we will be having a big school supply drop. We are also looking at getting a road project for the school because it’s like a lake getting in and we don’t want the kids walking through the water to get into school. Well I guess I will wrap this up for the week and call it a day.

AFGHANISTAN: NEW CONTRACTS CURB CHILD MARRIAGES -- (AKI)
Kabul, 14 March - Source IRIN - The Supreme Court of Afghanistan has approved a new marriage contract which is expected to help stop child and forced marriages in the country. The new 15-page formal marriage contract, the ‘Nikah Nama’, has been welcomed by women’s rights NGOs in a country where 60 to 80 percent of marriages are forced, according to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

The German Front in the Iraq War -- [Ullrich Fichtner - War in Iraq]
Every day, planes land at Ramstein with severely injured US soldiers from Iraq. In the biggest American military hospital in Europe, lives are saved, limbs amputated and gunshot wounds patched up. It's the Iraq War's German front.
When looking for the outer perimeter of the Iraq battlefield, there is no need to travel to the Middle East. The war does not cease at Iraq's border with Syria to the west or with Iran to the east. Indeed, one of the battlefield's boundaries is located just eight kilometers (five miles) outside of Landstuhl, Germany. It is here where the broken, shrapnel-filled bodies of American soldiers come on the first leg of their journey back to health — if they complete the journey at all.

Iran Gov't Spokesman: "300" Film "Cultural Intrusion" Against Iran -- [MEMRI Blog]
The official Iranian news agency IRNA reported today that Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham had termed the new film "300" "part of the extensive cultural aggression aiming to degenerate cultures of world states," and had added that "the Iranian nation and those involved in cultural activities will respond to such a cultural aggression."

The Big Lie Is Silly and it Works -- [Strategy Page]
March 14, 2007: On March 9th, North Korea urged the United States and South Korea to cancel their joint military exercises scheduled for later this month. North Korea has been making demands like that for over half a century. Military exercises are never cancelled as a result, so why do they bother? It's the old "big lie" technique, made infamous by the Soviet Union for seventy years. The "big lie" (tell a lie often enough, and more people will begin to believe it) has been around for thousands of years. But the Soviets used it frequently, outrageously, and at times it actually worked. The North Korea make the regular calls,

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

Taliban Think Smaller and Make Nicer -- [Strategy Page]
Despite efforts to keep it quiet, information about NATO and American raids across the border into Pakistan are getting out. The raids have captured some Taliban leaders, who were staying in Pakistani villages close to the border. These actions are forcing the Taliban to move their forward bases (for controlling the movement of gunmen across the border into and out of Afghanistan) deeper into Pakistan, and that makes it more difficult to move men and supplies into Afghanistan. Compared to last year, ...

Exclusive: "Moderate" Muslim Tariq Ramadan was detained, charged and ordered to trial in France after insulting a police officer -- [Winds of Change]
Tariq Ramadan, the so-called "moderate" Islamic "intellectual", was briefly detained and charged for "insulting a public agent" on Sunday at Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle International Airport, while in transit to London.
From informed police sources, we have learned that when Ramadan tried to enter a prohibited area, a young policewoman stopped him.

Sudan Accused of Terrorism in USS Cole Trial -- [Douglas Farah - Counterterrorism Blog]
A little noticed but important trial for the issue of material support for terrorism began yesterday in Norfolk, Virginia. The families of the 17 people killed in the al Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000 are suing the government of Sudan for offering the support that made the attack possible.

TERRORISM: TWO ALLEGED JIHADI WEBMASTERS ARRESTED IN SPAIN -- (AKI)
Saragozza, 14 March - A Spanish man has been arrested in the northeastern town of Zaragoza on suspicion of promoting terrorism on the Internet. A Moroccan citizen was also arrested Wednesday in an unspecified Spanish location during an ongoing anti-terror operation by the Civil Guard which says it may lead to further arrests. The 31-year-old Spaniard and the 23-year-old Moroccan - both male - are allegedly the webmasters of the Spanish jihadist website Al-Andalus Islamiya which publishes messages supporting and justifying Islamist terrorism

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Where have you been? -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
Since the Walter Reed scandal broke, I've had more than a few people ask for my thoughts on the facilities at Landstuhl. As a volunteer and outsider with no military or medical experience I don't feel particularly qualified to give an opinion. But I do have eyes and ears, and I've met more than a few patients over the last couple of years. So here goes.

Blogging from Walter Reed -- [Wired Blogs]
Over the past month, we've heard all kinds of horror stories about the soldiers left to rot in the dark corners of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. We've read newspaper accounts. We've watched Congressional testimony. Now, we get to hear from one of the soldiers, directly. This Walter Reed patient has a blog. And it is must-read material.
"I have been called a patriot, and treated like a criminal. I have been called a Soldier and treated as the enemy," he writes in his introductory post, this past Saturday

Snake Saturday: We Did It!!! -- [Soldiers' Angels Kansas City]
Soldiers' Angels participated in the Snake Saturday parade, Saturday, March 10. It was a fantastic experience. We had a great turn out of Angels including a Denizen of Castle Arrggh!.
The crowd was great. We took video (which I am diligently editing) and asked people to give a message to our troops. All along the route, when we said we were supporting our troops and making a video message to send them, the crowd went crazy. People were screaming out "Thank you!", "We Love You!", "Stay Safe!" and "God Bless You!". I have so much great video, it's hard to pick out what to keep. Unfortunately, a CD only holds 700mb and we have 1gb (1000mb) of video. Plus, You Tube only allows you to put 100mb per video up. So, you see why it is taking a little longer to get the video up. Please have a little more patience.
In the meantime, here are some great pictures to look at and a little of the story:

Soldier calls nasty bar beating a 'sneak attack' -- [CTV]
..."This wasn't two guys on the ice dropping gloves and going, 'OK, let's go'," Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday.
"This was an attack -- a sneak attack. To blindside a guy ... and hit him with an object, there's something wrong."
Fitzgerald is well known in Morrisburg, Ont., a small town about an hour's drive south of Ottawa.
He says he'd been in the bar only about 20 minutes late Friday, visiting with a childhood friend who introduced him to people as a war hero, when he was suddenly struck from behind with some type of object.

MILITARY

What Not To Say To A Military Wife -- [Villianious Company]
Via Carrie, this is classic.
If you've never thought about this, or you have military wives around you, print this out and put it in a desk drawer or on your refrigerator.
Let me add a few that have particularly irritated me over the years:

The Anti-Recruiting Movement -- [Strategy Page]
Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, an anti-recruiting movement has developed in the United States. A branch of the anti-Iraq-war movement, the anti-recruiting effort has gotten a lot of publicity. But it has had no impact on actual recruiting. That's because most of the anti-recruiting effort is directed at schools (generally upscale) and students that are not the usual sources of new recruits. The media coverage of the anti-recruiting efforts does not dwell on this aspect much. Nor does the fact that the military has made its recruiting numbers, and is expanding the size of the armed forces, attract much media attention.

POLITICS

Who CAIRs? You should! -- [Calvary in Iraq - in Iraq]
...So thousands of us Americans are leaving our families behind and risking injury or death, just so OUR OWN CONGRESSMEN can provide aid and comfort to our enemies??
I respect the right of people to disagree about political issues, including war and foreign policy. That's one of the reasons I wanted to deploy here to Iraq, to help our country fight for freedom, including the freedom to speak one's mind, right or wrong.

The Real Message From Obama -- [Pat Dollard]
Obama to Terrorists:
Hang in there, keep Up the fight, because I am doing everything I can to hand you victory, and if elected, will guarantee it.
Obama To U.S. Troops:
Your mission sucks, and so every day you get out of bed and face death to do your job

Senate agrees to begin debate on Iraq pullout -- (MSNBC)
89-9 vote paves way for consideration of a withdrawal date for U.S. troops
WASHINGTON - Breaking a parliamentary roadblock, the Senate voted Wednesday to begin its first formal debate on the Iraq war since Democrats took control of Congress in January.
The 89-9 vote paved the way for consideration of a Democratic measure that calls for — but does not require — President Bush to pull U.S.

THE MEDIA

Those Bad Soldiers in Iraq -- [Bull Nav - OPFOR]
I saw this in the NYT this morning and it just set me off. The article starts
In May 2004, Specialist Justin J. Lillis got drunk on what he called “hajji juice,” a clear Iraqi moonshine smuggled onto an Army base in Balad, Iraq, by civilian contractors, and began taking potshots with his M-16 service rifle.
and then continues with two more examples of all the bad stuff our guys are supposedly doing over there.
Of course there is the obligatory Viet Nam reference for stress relief
“The treatment that they take for it is the same treatment that they took after Vietnam,” Dr. Kosten said. “They turn to alcohol and drugs.”
Also, not to be missed, is the blatant sensationalism...

Washington Post Misses the Mark on the Askariya Mosque Bombing ... [Counterterrorism Blog]
... Washington Post features an article by Thomas Ricks (titled "Shrine bombing as war's turning point debated"), suggesting "many Iraq experts" are in disagreement with the "Bush administration" assessment that the February 2006 Askariya mosque bombing in Samarra was a major tipping point for the war in Iraq. There are several comments that should be made regarding this piece:
1.) Sectarian violence in Iraq began on a small scale by mid-2003 and only escalated from there. I don't think anyone either in or outside the Bush administration is trying to suggest that internecine conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq first emerged in February 2006. Indeed, the infiltration

HUMOR / SATIRE

Day By Day

Clinton: Gen. Pace Owes Apology to Adulterers -- [ScrappleFace]
Former President Bill Clinton today added his voice to the chorus calling for Gen. Peter Pace to apologize for remarks in a recent interview in which he branded some kinds of behavior as “immoral“, and said the military should not condone immorality of any kind.

French Canadian's in Afghanistan.

Kinda funny, but ....Lotsa respect for our guy's over there in the thick of it. Be safe!

(Need more? The previous Dawn Patrol is here.)